The President's annual address / by Robert Battey.

  • Robert Battey
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The President's annual address / by Robert Battey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    18/22 page 14
    Medical-men are presumed to be honorable gentlemen whose word is a bond. In general, w-e may safely trust them to record their cases accurately, whilst fresh in mind, and accept their statements with confidence. When, however, years have gone by, man in his best estate is but human, memory is treacherous and uncertain. He who rests him.self upon it with greatest confidence is by no means the one most to be trusted for his accuracy of statement. Honest and truthful men are, in general, accustomed to watch themselves most closely. It may pertinently be asked, Is the ipse dixit of an operator, after the lapse of years, to be accepted as conclusive proof of the authenticity of his cases? Is the testimony of patients themselves satisfactory evidence of work done within the ab- domen whilst they were under the influence of an anaesthetic years before? Do such assertions throw upon the medical profession at large the onus of proof that such operations were not done in manner and time as stated ? It may safely be answered that the medical world recog-nizes no such oblisration. but leaves to claimants, themselves, the task of authenticating their own cases, and of fully and clearly substantiating their own claims. To allow such latitude to claimants would be but to open a wide door to untrnthfnl and dishonest persons, if, indeed, any such could be supposed to have gained admission to the ranks of a high and noble profession, throngh which they might find ample room to bring in cases specially cooked for the occasion and present them unsupported by other testimony save the mere assertion of the operator. What honest man could stand against such fearful odds? With the ample facilities which we now have for bringing new discoveries to the notice of the profession through medical societies and medical periodicals, does not an obligation rest upon all pioneers to avail themselves early of such opportuni- ties to put their claims upon record? Does not a failure to do this justify the presumption either of a lack of proper appre- ciation of the value of the thing discovered or a culpable indif-
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